Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 181: The Battle of Fran (2)

Looking at the situation, although the human fleet struck by surprise and caused considerable initial damage to the Greenskin fleet, they were still at a numerical disadvantage.

The gap between the two sides was roughly two to one.

So, once the Greenskin fleet adjusted its formation, their counterattack began.

A portion of them, approximately a third, moved to intercept the fleet led by the Lamenters Chapter's flagship, the battle barge Mother of Tears, while the remaining two-thirds, including the flagship Grounded, engaged the combined fleet made up of the Imperial Navy's main force and the primary strength of the Excoriators Chapter.

The Greenskins adopted a direct assault tactic. A vast number of warships suddenly overloaded their engines, charging toward the human fleet at extreme speeds, firing at point-blank range, and even attempting to ram them to throw the human formation into chaos.

Due to the large number of massive warships in the human main fleet, their formation changes were sluggish. They could only form a spherical cage formation as best they could to protect the capital ships.

Consequently, the battle soon evolved into two distinct theaters: on one side, a smaller number of ships maintained a certain distance and exchanged fire, while on the other, a larger number became entangled in a chaotic melee.

At this point, the Greenskins' numerical superiority came into play.

Most human warships had to deal with two or even more Greenskin vessels simultaneously, and the main fleet found itself surrounded by enemy ships. The Fire of Punishment, for instance, had over ten Greenskin warships firing upon it.

As for the Endless Night, although it faced fewer attacks, the challenge it confronted was the most severe."Void shield energy has reached maximum capacity!"

On the bridge, every auspex screen and observation port displayed a blinding expanse of white.

The Endless Night and the Grounded were less than thirty kilometers apart. The massive firepower from both ships poured onto each other's shields, completely obscuring the view.

Sparks continually erupted from the control panels, and entire rows of consoles were severely overloaded. The high-level command servitors overheated from the sheer volume of data, and at least half had died ten minutes prior.

Magyar still sat upon his throne, slowly wiping clean the bloody teeth of his reaping scythe.

"We must disengage."

Beside him, the Chapter's Fourth Company Commander, who was also the Master of the Fleet, urged:

"We should maintain some distance."

If compared to people, the state of these two warships at this moment was like warriors with locked weapons. Although the Endless Night was not vastly different from the Grounded in tonnage, she lacked her opponent's stamina.

She was a knight, a warrior of elegant upbringing and dignified bearing, now embroiled in a savage brawl.

With every passing moment that the two ships remained deadlocked, things continually died aboard the Endless Night.

As the Fourth Company Commander spoke, a frenzied system near the strategium array threw a scorched crew member across the bridge, smashing him into a pipe.

The pummeling continued. The Grounded, much like the proud human ship, suffered cracked ribs and bruised eyes, but this offered no solace to the Master of the Fleet.

"No."

Magyar shook his head and replied softly, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the blinding white of the main auspex, as if his enhanced acuity allowed him to pierce through it in defiance of simple physical laws.

"This works to their advantage, Chapter Master."

"Then we will make our advantages surpass theirs, Fourth Company Commander."

"Navigating this closely, we risk a collision."

"Since we have taken the field, blood must be spilled."

p>"Then at least let me recall the Fire of Punishment. Between the two of us, we—""No."

Magyar never raised his voice, but a trained ear could detect the sheer willpower in his deep tone and in every hard syllable he uttered.

"Keep them at a certain distance and hold them in place. Maintain the battle line, and try not to get mixed in with the Greenskin ships."

The Fourth Company Commander turned back to his screens, where electricity sparked across the displays.

"Understood."

The battle fell into a tense stalemate. Warships continuously exploded or retreated with heavy damage, while others perished together in mutual collisions.

When war became a simple numbers game, the Greenskins entered their favorite element.

Some Greenskin warships had even begun launching boarding actions against the human capital ships, but all were repelled without exception by the Astartes stationed aboard. Every capital ship involved in the fight had at least a squad of Astartes deployed specifically to prevent boarding attempts.

But if things continued like this, there would eventually be failures—

Just as the Greenskins' attention was completely drawn by the battle at hand.

It emerged from the Warp without warning.

Swarms of transport ships, frigates, and a small number of cruisers deployed into a broad spherical formation in front of the wound their reentry into the material universe had created.

The Starfire floated at their center, its slender hull gleaming under the faint starlight.

Upon his throne on the bridge, the Chapter Master of the Astral Knights silently watched the destructive light bursting across the battlefield and listened to the cries of the dying.

As he listened to and read the data from the augurs, they told him that the time had come.

"We advance."

With no further orders needed, the entire fleet began to accelerate.

The fiercely engaged Greenskin fleet paid little attention to this newly arrived "small fleet"—it consisted mostly of fuel transports and lightly armed supply vessels.

Then, as this bizarre fleet approached, every frigate unleashed its firepower, turning those massive glowing wrecks entirely into burning dust.

A portion of the Greenskin fleet hurriedly detached to intercept this force, but it was already accelerating, plunging toward the core of the battlefield like a cluster of flaming arrows falling from the night sky.

The Starfire took the lead, firing upon any ship that blocked its path and killing a portion of them, leaving the rest to tumble in its wake like debris hemorrhaging various substances.

On his throne, Soshyan watched the image of the Space Hulk marked as the Greenskin flagship steadily grow larger in the bridge's observation bay.

The ships of both sides filled the asteroid belt, with the human fleet entrenched in various directions.

At this moment, both sides sensed an opening, but the Greenskins were clearly slower to react.

Under heavy escort, the massive promethium transports and ammo barges also began to accelerate. They were inherently fragile, but both sides had spread out their formations, allowing them to remain shielded from enemy fire.

The Starfire continued its dive toward a group of Greenskin light warships that had just turned.

Flames devoured their shields, leaving gouges across their gray-iron hulls before their main structures were torn apart and destroyed.

The macrocannons were already loaded, and the timed fuzes inside every shell began to tick.

Simultaneously, covered by the frigates, the transport fleet hurtled forward at high speed, dragging a trail of armor fragments behind them.

Charging straight into the fangs and claws of enemy fire, they began to burn, peeling away molten metal from their hulls.

Waves of shells and beams of energy battered their fragile shields and smashed into their bows, but the silhouette of the Greenskin fleet already filled the view of their bridges. They could only forge ahead—staffed only by a sparse crew and a large number of servitors, they had absolutely no way to make any attitudinal adjustments.

To provide them with protection, the frigates fearlessly braved the cannon fire, valiantly positioning their hulls straight between the transport ships and the enemy, launching row upon row of torpedoes.

A few Greenskin warships seemed to realize the attackers' intentions and began to scatter, but it was too late.

The transport ships, fully laden with fuel and explosives, began to break formation—